The Baker factor?
After yesterday's stunning upset of Bill Dunn by Jason Mumpower for the Tennessee House Republican leadership, one name began to surface as the responsible party, and it was not a member of the House. The name: Ward Baker. Mr. Baker is an RNC bigwig (don't get me wrong here, I do not think working for or on behalf of the Republican National Committee is a bad thing on its face at all), and he was apparently seen on the Hill yesterday around the time that the votes were taken.How much influence does Ward Baker have? Well, one poster over at Bill Hobbs' place accused the blogs of "protecting" Ward Baker. Another said in quite telling fashion:
I am not a big dog, but hear a lot on the Hill. The staff members all said, well Ward got what he wanted.
The actual version of things from two semi-anonymous posters:
I was on the Hill today.
The word was Ward Baker got what he wanted. I saw seven members go over to him after the vote. They all gave him a high five.
After the Casada vote almost the whole caucus looked over at Ward. He is best friends with Casada.
Now I like Glen Casada from an ideological viewpoint, but I don't like that kind of influence in our leadership process-especially if this is true:
I heard even the governor told people that Ward Baker must have put this together.
If Bredesen thinks Ward Baker is the reponsible party, and staffers on the Hill think that Ward Baker is responsible for this, it makes me wonder if yesterday's mysterious anonymous poster might have a very personal relationship with Mr. Baker indeed.
Labels: Tennessee politics
posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 8:35 AM
4 Comments:
Ward is friends with Casada and did pull for him but stayed out of the leadership races. He didn't twist any arms. The caucus ALL owe Ward, BIG TIME. He raised over six figures for the caucus. If he wanted he could have put pressure on people but he didn't. Ward is hard core conservative.
Stacey;
I believe you (and you know I trust you to the point of life or death anyway), but if true that Bredesen thinks Ward Baker put all this together, you have to admit that it looks suspicious to those of us who are not on the Hill.
What's more, I get a post on my blog anonymously at 10:46am-that would have been 9:46 in Nashville- by someone who obviously was pre-aware of the outcome. If Blogger allowed me to trace IP's, I would find this person-it does look very strange to me...very strange indeed.
I don't doubt that Baker is a conservative...but why would the Governor and a bunch of Hill staffers all think Baker "put this together?" And if he did talk to people-I could see pushing for Casada...I called you and pleaded on Dunn's behalf...but why Mumpower?
Some people like to try to force other people into the middle of a fight. It creates devision among the troops, keeps wounds from healing and when the person being pushed into the fight get free they often run away never to return. Who do you think would gains from that and try to do something like that?
A.) The Democrats would gain-if we are divided, they maintain control. They love this because they get at least one thing they want-no more Bill Dunn.
B.) The "establishment" wing or faction of the GOP also gains-with a divided GOP they can keep conservatives out of any real control.
C.) None of this answers the question as to who that was who posted here yesterday before the vote was even announced...does that not smell fishy to you? Does it not seem as if something is up with that?
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